


Mailbox 1401

by AltonaFalcon



Series: Jihyo x Tzuyu / Jitzu Oneshot Collection [6]
Category: TWICE (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-11
Updated: 2018-05-11
Packaged: 2019-05-05 05:01:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,657
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14609913
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AltonaFalcon/pseuds/AltonaFalcon
Summary: Everyday Tzuyu entered the mail room, and everyday she left without a single letter. Jihyo wondered if she could change that.





	Mailbox 1401

**Author's Note:**

> I loved the girls in Sixteen, especially Somi, so I decided to include them in this new story.

Tick tock, sounded the clock hanging on the far side of the room, the only sound in the otherwise dead silence.

Park Jihyo, a third-year student, sat at the counter, watching the clock hands slowly move with practiced patience. There was once a time where she thought books, mobile games, or online chatting would provide sufficient distraction from this depressing time of idle, but as time went by, all those activities proved to be even more of a chore in comparison with sitting still and watching the clock. Eventually, Jihyo abandoned all attempt of doing anything, opting for just thinking while her unfocused eyes drift to any noteworthy object beside herself- which, in this case, was the clock counting towards the end of her shift.

  
It was a quarter to five, which meant there was fifteen minutes left before she could leave the job for her band practice. Despite the excruciatingly bland job of hers, Jihyo was actually the leader of a quite successful university band named TWICE. In their two years of existence, they had garnered attention by partaking in various inter-school music competitions, and while they did not always win, they had for themselves quite a number of fans in the region where they lived. As expected- but not adequate, she always thought, of students currently enrolled in JYP- the country’s most prestigious music academy. Only by continually telling herself and her friends-slash-members that they were yet to live up to the school’s expectation could they get out of complacency and keep on practicing.

Jihyo’s part-time job at the mail room, where she was currently lounging, entailed sorting all incoming mails into respective mailboxes and, should it be packages too large to fit through the hole, giving them to the recipient directly when they showed up. It was by no means an interesting task, but it provided a steady source of income, and she need not do anything that might affect her stamina. Taking into account the amount of energy required for both schoolwork and band practice, it was the most fitting job she could find. That’s why, over time, she had come to appreciate the resting time she had, just sitting around staring at the ticking clock.

Still with that in mind, a human mind was not designed to endure boredom without a meaningful purpose. Jihyo knew that, and she had it covered already- hers was about to arrive any minute now.

The bigger hand on the clock eventually reached five, signaling its arrival with a resounding bell ring. As if on cue, the heavy wooden door on Jihyo’s left swung open, and in came a slender figure with long flowing brown hair. The girl meandered towards the towering rows of mailboxes, seemingly unaware of Jihyo’s stare fixated on her. She stopped after a dozen steps, reached for one upper box with little more than a slight tip-toe (she was tall, Jihyo noticed, most students would otherwise have to use the chairs). With practiced precision, she rotated the dial on her lockpad until it clicked (she brought her own too, the default ones must have failed her tastes), and pulled open the steel door. Jumping up a little, the unknown girl snuck a peak inside and, upon finding it empty (as expected, probably by both people present), promptly slammed the door shut. 

Quietly shuffling out of the mail office, the girl stopped at the door, and looked back at Jihyo with a hesitant glance. Jihyo smiled at her, shooting her a small wave. She nervously responded with the lightest of smiles before quickly departing, and Jihyo was alone again. This scene had repeated itself like a broken record, and for all her dedication and commitment, she had always left empty-handed; no letter, no postcards, not even a magazine.

Her name was Chou Tzuyu, and her locker number was 1401. That was all Jihyo knew of this girl.

Still, as time went by and their silent exchange continued for an entire semester, Jihyo decided she needed more than that.

_____

“Jihyo-unnie, I can basically draw an accurate picture of your five-o’clock girl by now, you don’t need to tell me anything else.” Dahyun sighed. Jihyo pouted at her dongsaeng’s lack of enthusiasm.

“Well sorry for ranting on about the only interesting thing in my afternoon Tofu.” She stuck her tongue out at the pale rapper. “Anyways, I have a plan.”

They were gathered in their dorm, where all eight members of TWICE resided together. It had been only Jihyo, Jeongyeon and Nayeon- the eldest among them at first, so they all stayed at their respective homes, only meeting up for practice and occasional hangouts. But when they got together with a dancing machine of a Japanese students- Hirai Momo, as well as the young rapper Kim Dahyun who asked to join TWICE as soon as they enrolled, they decided to move in a common dorm room. It was a miracle how quickly three groups of disparate backgrounds and personalities clicked together, and only then did the notion of TWICE become serious. That did not mean though, that every meeting of theirs had to be professional and strict.

Like now, when Momo was taking a nap on the couch and Nayeon was out somewhere on a club-related errand, the remaining members were just lounging around, idly watching TV or playing with their phone when Jihyo came up with her ingenious scheme.

“A plan to do what exactly?” Jeongyeon inquired curiously.

“To make acquaintance with this girl of course!” Jihyo answered with enthusiasm. “She’s clearly not the type you can just walk up and strike a conversation. Especially when we’ve been seeing each other everyday for a semester already, it’d just be weird if I talked to her now. That said, I need a proper plan, and I probably need all your help.”

She proceeded to tell her bandmates of what she had in mind. When she was done, both Jeongyeon and Dahyun looked at her with disturbed looks.

“Jihyo-unnie… That was strangely elaborate, yet so stupid at the same time.” Dahyun finally found her voice to comment. “Why would you wanna go that far just to talk to her? Did you fall in love with her already?”

“No! It’s just…” Jihyo hastily denied. Jeongyeon gave her a questioning look.

“Why then? Going through all that, while you can just walk up to her and say hi.”

“Um…” She trailed off, not sure of what to say. Her friend’s question was understandable; to other people’s eyes, she was making things overly complicated for something so simple. Kill a fly with a sledgehammer, so to speak. Yet no one understood the invisible connection they’d had.

Truth be told, she was afraid. Terrified even, to imagine the cold rejection should she walk up to the girl named Tzuyu and say “Hey, so we’ve been seeing each other for half a year now and I’m getting bored of that, so let’s be friends”. While it was essentially no big deal, seeing as they never knew each other in the first place and she was not to lose anything, Jihyo knew she would not want this to fall through just like that.

After all, preparation was always better than impulse.

_____

“… You want me to do what now?” Somi looked up from her paper work, and she stared at the sheepish Jihyo with annoyed disbelief.

“Yeah… I think you are able to pull it off?” She replied, with considerably less confidence than when she entered the Student Council office.

The first step of her grand plan, Jihyo figured, would be making the letter-writing club official. So she went on her merry way to call in a favor from her old friend, Somi. The half-Canadian girl was, alongside Nayeon and Jeongyeon, was the starting member when the band first started, yet Somi decided she had more proclivity towards office tasks than the stage. It had been a shame to see her leave, but they had parted with no hard feelings and- most of all, she and Jihyo remained fast friends, something the band leader was always grateful for.

Somi moved on to be an errand girl in the Student Council, and she wasted no time climbing up the hierarchy. Right now, she was sitting at the table as the glorious president, who- luckily, had a soft spot for her old bandmates. So she made Twice an official and exclusive club of the university, with full benefits and then some.

For one, they had a secluded clubroom for themselves. Which was a privilege in itself, since most clubs have to share their operation space due to the lack of available venues.

Another perk would be that, they could come to her for the more political aspects of their work, such as organizing events or mini-concerts. The half-blood beauty practically doubled as their manager, and they had taken to coming to her for whatever shortcuts the Student Council President had access to. Which was a lot.

Apparently, such shortcuts could not be applied for this case.

“You do know that there’s more to register a club than just writing the name down onto some kind of roster right? You have to undergo a lot of processes, like presenting authenticity, membership, legitimizing the activities, so on and so forth.”

“I’m not asking you to really make a new club. Wouldn’t it be fine just to double our clubroom as that of this new club?”

“You mean, use our clubroom as a return address for a letter to a girl neither of us knows personally, that’s from a club that doesn’t exist.” Somi deadpanned. The way the girl referred to the room as ‘our’ did not go unnoticed by Jihyo, and it made her feel a little glad inside.

“What if this Tzuyu girl gets suspicious and decides to investigate on this… ‘Anonymous Correspondence’ then inevitable discovers that no such club is recognized?”

“Come on Somi-yah, you’re acting like every single club on campus needs to be sanctioned by the Student Council to operate. There are many clubs that are just too small or too new, you know?” Somi sighed, knowing Jihyo was right. “Why can’t it be the same case here?”

“… You’re forgetting the part that once this gets reported, you’re dead.”

“Yes, but no freshman in their right minds would do that. If they don’t feel like responding, they will just ignore the letter altogether, not track it down to the roots.” Jihyo was winning the argument and she knew it.

“Come on, just give me the okay on this. You’ll never have to hear about it again, I promise.”

Somi sighed and brushed a stray strand of hair off her face. “Sorry Jihyo-ah, but I don’t like how risky this is. I think I’d rather not get involved.”

Jihyo couldn’t say she hadn’t expected so much resistance. There was too much at stake for Somi as president, and it was understandable of her to be wary of overstepping her boundaries. Still, taking into account the fact that she still bothered to argue about Operation Anonymous Correspondance, Jihyo considered that she still had a chance.

Time to bring out the big guns.

“What if… I gave you Chaeyoung’s mailbox number?” Jihyo asked conspiratorially, lowering her voice.

Somi’s stern expression shattered. “W-What? Why would I want that?”

Jihyo did not answer immediately. She opted for a mini staring contest, making sure she had a knowing smirk on. As expected, Somi’s stubborn attitude began to crumble just as her facade did.

“You’ve been meaning to ask her out, no? It’d be sweet to send her something first.”

Somi’s cheeks visibly reddened.

“… No, that wouldn’t be right.” She stuttered, not bothering to even deny the notion. “I’ll just go and talk to her.”

“Oh, and her birthday’s coming up too. I bet she’d _love_ to get a card from her sunbae~” Jihyo said in a sing-song tone.

“I’ll just… email her something.”

“Really? I’m sure she’d appreciate an actual card _a lot_ more…”

“Hold on,” Somi cut in. “Alright, I know what you’re trying to do here Jihyo. You can do whatever you want.”

 _Bingo._ “Thanks Somi-yah, I know I could count on you.”

“But, if this girl you’re writing to doesn’t like this, you’re taking full responsibility for it, alright?”

“Definitely. Like I said, she would come to you to ask for the clubroom’s address, and you’ll redirect her to us, absolutely nothing else.”

“… Fine. You can use the room for your little… whatever it is you’re planning.” Concluded Somi with another sigh.

_____

The next step would be recruiting ghost members. Luckily, Jihyo was anything but unpopular.

She proceeded to go to the singing sisters, Chaeyeon and Chaeryeong, her childhood friend Eunsuh, as well as a Thai exchange student who went by the name Natty. Overjoyed at the notion that they would get to hang out at Twice’s curb, none of them disagreed.

“There’s something not quite right about Jihyo.” Nayeon muttered when she saw the aforementioned girls flooding the clubroom. “Oh well, it’s gonna be fun.”

Nayeon shook her head to clear off the doubt. It was not her business after all, and they were always glad to talk to their fans. For better or worse, at least Jihyo’s plan succeeded in livening up the clubroom for a while.

_____

“Jihyo, you mind turning off the light and go to sleep already?” Jeongyeon called out in an irritated voice.

“Yeah, sorry Jeongyeon-unnie. Just a minute.” Came Jihyo’s distracted reply.

Knowing the next bedcall would come soon, Jihyo took the little time she had re-reading the letter she had just spent the whole night mulling over.

_Dear Tzuyu,_

_How are you? I’m writing to you on behalf of Anonymous Correspondence, our school’s letter-writing club! You probably haven’t heard of us, since we’re a fairly new club, but we still hope to spread the traditional joy of sending and receiving written letters to students all over the university._

_So, please tell me a little about yourself! Your major, which classes are you studying, your hobbies, anything! Our goal is to get people more involved in the postal system, thereby encouraging the handwritten way of communication in the old days, so anything you’d like to write back is welcome. Receiving mail is also part of the fun, so I’ll be glad to read and reply to anything you choose to respond with. And since confidentiality is highly important to all, your information will not be shared to anyone else without your consent. Of course you can choose not to respond at all, that’s fine too. We understand that students are quite busy, so don’t feel obliged to write back if this doesn’t interest you. I just hope you enjoy receiving a letter, and that you’ll have the opportunity to write to your friends and family and spread the joy of mail._

_Hope you have a good day!_

_Thomas, junior member of Anonymous Correspondence_

Jihyo looked over the content once more, then smiled with satisfaction. The letter conveyed exactly what she wanted- an overall friendly and inviting tone, all the while keeping it relatively anonymous. The wording itself was formal enough to be official, but she made sure to use a lot of singular first person to lend a bit of familiarity.

The next morning, she found herself standing by the metal row of mailboxes. In front of her, about a foot up, was the number 1401.

“Here goes nothing.” Taking a deep breath, Jihyo muttered. Tiptoeing to reach upwards, she inserted the letter into Tzuyu’s mailbox. She was bypassing conventional procedure, that she knew, but she had full right to do it- after all, her part-time job entailed putting letters into their recipients’ boxes, so it was not exactly against the rules to do this.

She turned on her heels and headed out. For now, she had done all she could do. 

All that’s left was wait.


End file.
